and devoted parents." Their usual call-note, which is very melodious, sounds like 

 be-ah-be-bere, or et-see-dee-ab. It is very striking and almost constantly heard. The 

 real song always expresses the same sweetness, plaintiveness, and almost wildness. It 

 is uttered usually from a fence-post or tree-top, but also from the ground, and often 

 w^hen the bird is on the wing. 



"Suffice it to say, therefore," writes Prof. Robert Ridgway in his interesting and 

 valuable work, "The Ornithology of Illinois," "that while not a single charge has been 

 laid at his door, so far as the author is aware, the Meadowlark is a very general 

 favorite among lovers of birds, on account of his pleasant song, bright plumage, and 

 pretty ways. His sweet, tender song is one of the finest to be heard in our rural 

 districts, and is characterized by a delicacy of tone remarkable in so large a bird. It is 

 usually interpreted by the country folks as imitating that laziness will kill you (accent 

 on the penultimate syllable), while others imagine it to say: peek-you can't see me, — 

 a very appropriate translation, we think, in the case of a bird which, like the present, 

 plays at 'hide and seek' with us in the meadows." 



There is something enchantingly striking in the song, a charm, a liquid flow, a 

 hilarity and sweetness, which must attract the attention of every one, especially on a 

 beautiful May or June day, when everything around us celebrates its spring jubilee, and 

 when the Meadowlark will be roused to unwonted animation, singing far beyond the 

 usual score of half a dozen notes. 



The Meadowlark is one of the most valuable and beneficial birds to the farmer 

 and fruit-grower. The quantities of noxious insects devoured in its summer haunts and 

 the incalculable numbers of seeds of w^eeds which are consumed by it, should place this 

 bird under the protection of man wherever it occurs and at all times. Grubs, w^orms, 

 grasshoppers, crickets, etc., are especially relished. 



Though an invaluable ally to the farmer and a favorite of all friends of the beau- 

 tiful in Nature, the Meadowlark is hunted in many parts of the country as a game-bird. 

 "That numerous class of men," says Wilson Flagg, "who would be more enraptured at 

 the sight of 'four-and-twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie' than at the sound of their 

 notes, though they equalled those of the Nightingale, — men who never look upon a bird 

 save with the eyes and the disposition of a prowling cat, and who display their know- 

 ledge of the feathered race chiefly at the gun-shops, — martial heroes among innocent 

 songsters, — have not overlooked a bird so plump as the Meadowlark. Vain is its lisping 

 and plaintive song; vain is the beauty displayed in its hovering and graceful flight, in 

 its variegated plumage and its interesting ways ! All these things serve but to render 

 its species the more conspicuous mark for gunners, who have hunted them so incessantly 

 that they are now as shy as the persecuted Crow, and as elusive a mark for the sports- 

 man as a Loon." 



This bird should receive the special attention of our law-makers, as it is one of the 

 most beneficial birds we have. Suitable laws in all parts of the country for the pro- 

 tection of this and other small birds are a great necessity, and these laws should be 

 stringently enforced. 



NAMES : Meadowlark, Old Fieldlark, Fieldlark, "Marsh Quail," Common Meadowlark, Eastern Meadowlark. 

 ' SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Alauda magna. Linn. (1758). Sturnella magna Swains. (1827). 



